Pakistanâ€™s Nuclear Artillery?

This is, purportedly, a very interesting Urdu-language article in a Pakistani paper, The News. I donâ€™t read Urdu, so as far as I know, this is just a recipe for chicken biryani.

According to some translations floating around, the article cites a â€œWestern diplomatâ€ claiming that former Pakistani President Pervez told US officials that Pakistan had developed â€œamong the worldâ€™s smartest nuclear tactical devices.â€

Now, since nuclear weapons donâ€™t take IQ tests, I think â€œsmartâ€ in this context means â€œneatness or trimness of appearance.â€ In other words, miniaturized.

I donâ€™t know if any of this is true, but the Pakistanis seem to be making a lot of noise lately about their tactical nuclear stockpile. â€œLook at us! We have tactical nuclear weapons!â€

Mark Hibbs, in a forthcoming article for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, mentions that, during his most recent trip to Islamabad, he was directly told that Pakistan was developing very small, low-yield nuclear weapons.

A few weeks after his visit, Pakistan tested a short-range artillery rocket, Nasr. In case you had any doubt, the Pakistanâ€™s official press release stated that the Nasr â€œcarries nuclear warheads of appropriate yield.â€

The Nasr is an artillery rocket â€” I have never before encountered this term Battlefield Range Ballistic Missile or BRBM. Usman Ansari in Defense News quoted a Pakistani academic, Mansoor Ahmed, arguing that â€œthe diameter size of Nasr suggests that the warhead would be less than 1 kilogram, and would be of sub-kiloton range, suitable for battlefield use and could be a fission boosted sub-kiloton fission device.â€

I canâ€™t find reliable data on the Nasr, so I used the Mark I Eyeball to observe that the Nasr (top) looks a lot like an M30/31 MLRS rocket (bottom). Both rockets have a similar range.

The M30 carries a 90 kg unitary penetrator and is about 20 centimeters in diameter. Thatâ€™s actually too small for even the smallest US nuclear weapon ever designed, the W54. (Aw, look at the little feller.)

Now, of course, maybe the Nasr is 30 centimeters in diameter (I certainly am not/not claiming to be able to eyeball rocket dimensions to within a few centimeters) or Pakistan just made a really little warhead.

I really wonder whether Pakistan could develop such a small warhead with any confidence. The general view has been that Pakistan would probably need testing to develop a miniaturized plutonium implosion device, to say nothing of the sort of boosted little devil we are talking about. I am no warhead designer, but here is how the National Academies described the situation in 2002:

Pakistan similarly could manufacture and stockpile its enriched uranium fission weapons without further testing, and it could make progress toward a plutonium implosion weapon (perhaps even producing and stockpiling one of simpleâ€”and inefficientâ€”design, in which it could have some confidence).

Now, as I have noted before â€œsimpleâ€”and inefficientâ€”designâ€ is a term of art that usually means too big for a missile, let alone a little rocket like NASR. I am skeptical, I must admit, but still intrigued. This is a smart little puzzle, isnâ€™t it?

This is, purportedly, a very interesting Urdu-language article in a Pakistani paper, The News. I donâ€™t read Urdu, so as far as I know, this is just a recipe for chicken biryani.

According to some translations floating around, the article cites a â€œWestern diplomatâ€ claiming that former Pakistani President Pervez told US officials that Pakistan had developed â€œamong the worldâ€™s smartest nuclear tactical devices.â€

Now, since nuclear weapons donâ€™t take IQ tests, I think â€œsmartâ€ in this context means â€œneatness or trimness of appearance.â€ In other words, miniaturized.

I donâ€™t know if any of this is true, but the Pakistanis seem to be making a lot of noise lately about their tactical nuclear stockpile. â€œLook at us! We have tactical nuclear weapons!â€

Mark Hibbs, in a forthcoming article for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, mentions that, during his most recent trip to Islamabad, he was directly told that Pakistan was developing very small, low-yield nuclear weapons.

A few weeks after his visit, Pakistan tested a short-range artillery rocket, Nasr. In case you had any doubt, the Pakistanâ€™s official press release stated that the Nasr â€œcarries nuclear warheads of appropriate yield.â€

The Nasr is an artillery rocket â€” I have never before encountered this term Battlefield Range Ballistic Missile or BRBM. Usman Ansari in Defense News quoted a Pakistani academic, Mansoor Ahmed, arguing that â€œthe diameter size of Nasr suggests that the warhead would be less than 1 kilogram, and would be of sub-kiloton range, suitable for battlefield use and could be a fission boosted sub-kiloton fission device.â€

I canâ€™t find reliable data on the Nasr, so I used the Mark I Eyeball to observe that the Nasr (top) looks a lot like an M30/31 MLRS rocket (bottom). Both rockets have a similar range.

The M30 carries a 90 kg unitary penetrator and is about 20 centimeters in diameter. Thatâ€™s actually too small for even the smallest US nuclear weapon ever designed, the W54. (Aw, look at the little feller.)

Now, of course, maybe the Nasr is 30 centimeters in diameter (I certainly am not/not claiming to be able to eyeball rocket dimensions to within a few centimeters) or Pakistan just made a really little warhead.

I really wonder whether Pakistan could develop such a small warhead with any confidence. The general view has been that Pakistan would probably need testing to develop a miniaturized plutonium implosion device, to say nothing of the sort of boosted little devil we are talking about. I am no warhead designer, but here is how the National Academies described the situation in 2002:

Pakistan similarly could manufacture and stockpile its enriched uranium fission weapons without further testing, and it could make progress toward a plutonium implosion weapon (perhaps even producing and stockpiling one of simpleâ€”and inefficientâ€”design, in which it could have some confidence).

Now, as I have noted before â€œsimpleâ€”and inefficientâ€”designâ€ is a term of art that usually means too big for a missile, let alone a little rocket like NASR. I am skeptical, I must admit, but still intrigued. This is a smart little puzzle, isnâ€™t it?

Pakistan is master of lies. They spread the same shit in 1987 during Operation Brasstacks and americans sold this nuke shit to Rajiv who finally called off the attack. It was later revealed that Pak had spread this lie and US supported it as US needed Pak to counter USSR in Afganistan.
I can say for sure that Pakistan has probably developed and operationalised 0.5KT power handgrenade also which their special forces can throw upto a distance of 50 kms by hand?
What trash guys. How can anyone even post this here.

Pakistan is master of lies. They spread the same shit in 1987 during Operation Brasstacks and americans sold this nuke shit to Rajiv who finally called off the attack. It was later revealed that Pak had spread this lie and US supported it as US needed Pak to counter USSR in Afganistan.
I can say for sure that Pakistan has probably developed and operationalised 0.5KT power handgrenade also which their special forces can throw upto a distance of 50 kms by hand?
What trash guys. How can anyone even post this here.

Click to expand...

tactics not lies
about Kirana hills test

Kirana-I were the series of 24 cold-tests conducted by Pakistan from 1983 till 1990. The tests were primarily conducted by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission for the purposes of studying effects of nuclear detonation, with armed forces' playing a supporting role. The weapon-testing programme was kept in extreme secrecy with only few in the government knowing about it. The tests proved the capability of Pakistan to have successfully developed the atomic bomb project and to perform the tests without outside interference.

Has Pakistan minituarized nuclear warheads??
what is the premise of using a low yield nuclear weapon if response is a higher yield nuke?
Most nations have accepted nuclear weapons as last line weapons while artillery is usually
first line combination is puzzling?

Has Pakistan minituarized nuclear warheads??
what is the premise of using a low yield nuclear weapon if response is a higher yield nuke?
Most nations have accepted nuclear weapons as last line weapons while artillery is usually
first line combination is puzzling?

Click to expand...

nasr will be used within Pakistan very Close to the border

and if nuclear war started will be followed by bigger as well
as pakistan is SUPPOSE to be manufacturing a facility of launching 84 ballistic missiles in one go